


Of all the gin joints

by justalittlegreen



Category: MASH (TV)
Genre: Boston, Drabble, Gen, Hospital, Short, in the right circumstances these two would get along like a house on fire, injured BJ, meet cute?, postcanon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:39:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22043443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justalittlegreen/pseuds/justalittlegreen
Comments: 12
Kudos: 67





	Of all the gin joints

BJ blinked. The lights overheard were too bright and he felt like he'd been mauled on his left side. "What happened?" he muttered, squinting.

An unfamiliar face bent over him in a lab coat, blocking the worst of the light. "Hi, I'm Dr. McIntyre," he said, his voice a flat drawl. "You're in the hospital."

"I gathered that much," BJ muttered. "How did I get here?"

"Well, it seems that you were hailing a cab at the airport and leaned out a little too far," the doctor continues, checking him over. "Clipped you pretty good. The cab driver brought you in. I've never heard someone speak Greek with that much terror in his voice."

"Oh no." 

"'Fraid so."

BJ tried to move his left arm. A pain shot up clear to his shoulder. He winced. 

"Careful," Dr. McIntyre said. "'You've got - " 

" - fractured radius, it feels like," BJ finished.

"Well, ten points to you," the doctor said in surprise. "You a doctor?"

BJ grimaced. "Surgeon. And stranger to Boston. I don't know a soul here. I was headed up to Maine."

"No kidding," Dr. McIntyre said. "Well, you're not going there anytime soon. Maybe I can call your people in Maine, see if they can come down?"

"It's a long way from Crabapple Cove," BJ mused. "I don't know if I want to worry them."

He didn't notice the doctor's face turn pale.

"Crabapple Cove," he heard McIntyre say in a shaky voice. "You're from Crabapple Cove?"

"Not me," BJ explained. "My best friend. I'm here visiting him. We served together in Korea..." his voice trailed off as a new pain made itself known in his hip. "Is there a chance something hit my pelvis?"

"Yeah," McIntyre answered absently. "That's gonna hurt awhile. Did you say Korea?"

"Yeah," BJ grunted. "Two years, why?"

"And your buddy that you served with - he was from Crabapple Cove, Maine?"

"Yeah."

"And you were going - you were going to visit him? In Crabapple Cove?" The doctor's voice rose to the edge of tears, something like disbelief.

"That's right," BJ said cautiously.

"And his name was - is - Hawkeye Pierce?" the doctor whispered.

BJ tried to sit up and got knocked back by a wave of pain. "What the _hell_?"

Immediately, Dr. McIntyre was standing over him, holding him down by his good shoulder. "Don't move. You just startled me, that's all."

" _I_ startled _you_?" BJ yelped. "How do you know Hawkeye?"

The surgeon shook his head. "Because I think I used to sleep in your bed."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"But you're going to _visit_ him. How?"

"What do you mean, how? And how do you know Hawkeye?"

"The letter said..."

"What letter?"

"Unless they were wrong?"

"Who was wrong? Damnit, were you - wait. You were in Korea?"

Dr. McIntyre braced himself against the stretcher, one hand in his graying hair. "Yeah," he muttered. "Yeah, I was in Korea. MASH 4077."

"Holy _shit_ ," BJ breathed.

"And you're going to visit Hawkeye."

"Yeah, and you're the famous Trapper John."

He looked up, a tiny smile smoothing the shock still in his face. "Famous, eh?"

"Oh yeah. The great prankster of the 4077. Hawkeye's best friend. You think he ever shut up about you?"

McIntyre looked around the room, grabbed a rolling stool and dragged it over, sitting next to BJ. "Did something happen to him?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, was he hurt? Lost? Taken? AWOL?"

"No, never. I mean, at the end of the war..."

"Then why - " McIntyre stopped himself, balling a fist in front of his mouth. "I wrote to him," he explained, his voice growing soft and choked. "I wrote to him and I got - the army sent - "

BJ tried to lift his hand and thought the better of it. "Hey," he said. "I think I know what happened. You got a letter saying he was dead."

"How do you know that?"

"Would you believe it if I said it was an administrative error?"

McIntyre squeezed his eyes shut, but the tears leaked out the corners anyway. "You know what?" he said, chuckling. "I do. They misfiled him under 'D' for 'dead?'"

"It was a mess," BJ agreed. "He went a little crazy."

"He always was." McIntyre shook his head. "Okay. We have to get you into surgery. I've gotta see about that arm and get x-rays on your pelvis."

"Wait. John. It's John, right?"

McIntyre stood up and put a hand gingerly on BJ's shoulder. "Friends call me Trapper. And any friend of Hawkeye's is a friend of mine."


End file.
